early 14c., plural of quoyn, from Old French cooin (Modern French coing), from Vulgar Latin *codoneum, from Latin cotoneum malum "quince fruit," probably a variant of cydonium malum, from Greek kydonion malon "apple of Kydonia" (modern Khania), ancient seaport city in Crete.

The plant is native to Persia, Anatolia, and Greece; the Greeks imported grafts for their native plants from a superior strain in Crete, hence the name. Kodu- also was the Lydian name for the fruit. Italian cotogno, German Quitte, etc. all are ultimately from the Greek word.

alkaloid responsible for curative properties in the cinchona tree, 1821, from French quinine (1820), with chemical ending -ine (2) + Spanish quina "cinchona bark" (from which it is extracted), from Quechua (Inca) kina. Earlier in reduplicated form quinaquina (1727).